September 8

  Somewhat hazy today. I don't know what the forecast is because I haven't looked. It doesn't really matter since we aren't going anywhere. I spent most of the morning working on a crochet piece that suddenly wasn't working any more. It is very easy to shift your focus from the row you are working to one nearby on the chart. I finally took out two rows to a point where the pattern looked correct and then reworked that part plus a couple of rows. Now I have only ten more to do to finish the pattern.

I had an additional problem--my iPad wasn't charging. I have had that problem before but I could always check the connections and the battery would charge again. I use the iPad for my crochet patterns and to access both the nook (Barnes&Noble) and Kindle (Amazon) libraries. I broke down the last time the iPad had this problem so I would still be able to read some of my books. It turned out that the problem was a failing plug --the one that goes into the power strip or wall plug. My new MacBook has a plug with two USB ports to I connected the iPad there and it is now charging very nicely. I might get a replacement for the dead plug and, maybe, a Kindle. Back-ups are always a good idea, as we found out when we lost Mom's glasses. The two weeks waiting for replacements were no fun. And, yes, we did get back-up pairs for her--and for me as well.

Bill Astore has some comments on the presidential campaign and the recent endorsement of Biden by Dick and Liz Chaney. Although I can agree with him on most of what he says I have a somewhat different take. First, though I am disappointed that certain promises Biden made during his campaign weren't kept, I don't think he should have made them in the first place. No one should make promises which require other people's cooperation to fulfill. Harris is making the same mistake in her campaign now. Most of those promises rest on the hope that she will have a cooperative congress (and nowadays cooperative courts) to fulfill. Second, not all Democrats were anti-war (not even the Vietnam War). My family was solidly working class Democrats and believe me when I say they had no qualms at all about the war at the time. They thought most of the anti-war "agitators" were entitled brats who didn't realize how good they had it and should have silently attended to their class work. Or obeyed the draft laws and served in the military. It took me a long time to come to the conclusion that most of the premises on which our wars were based were wrong. Third, for me, the question is which likely-to-win candidate is most likely to follow our laws whether she wins or loses and which will do everything he can to overturn the results if he doesn't win.

I think David Kaiser sums up the conundrum of our politics at this moment:  Harris is not the problem, but she is unlikely to be the solution. I will vote for her. The problems Kaiser described developed over time and have a lot of inertia. It will take more than a couple of elections to change directions. Right now there is no real majority who recognizes the each of the problems or agrees on a solution.